1S75.] Gr. Thibaut — On the S'ulvasutras. 229 



Two smaller treatises, a Manava S'ulvasiitra and a Maitrayaniya S'ulva- 

 siitra, bear the stamp of a later time, compared with tbe works of Baudha- 

 yana and A'pastamba. The literature of the white Yajur Veda possesses a 

 S'ulvaparis'ishta, ascribed to Katyayana, and there is no sufficient reason 

 for doubting that it was really composed by the author of the Kalpasiitra. 



The first to direct attention to the importance of the S'ulvasutras was 

 Mr. A. C. Burnell, who in his " Catalogue of a Collection of Sanscrit 

 Manuscripts," p. 29, remarks that " we must look to the S'ulva portions of 

 the Kalpasiitras for the earliest beginnings of geometry among the Brah- 

 mans." 



I have begun the publication of Baudhayana's S'ulvasutra, with the 

 commentary by Dvarakanathayajvan and a translation, in the May number 

 of the " Pandit, a monthly Journal of the Benares College, etc.", and intend 

 as soon as I have finished Baudhayana, to publish all other ancient S'ulva 

 works of which I shall be able to procure sufficiently correct manuscripts. 

 In the following pages I shall extract and fully explain the most important 

 siitras, always combining the rules given in the three most important s'ulva 

 treatises, those of Baudhayana, A'pastamba, and Katyayana, and so try to 

 exhibit in some systematic order the knowledge embodied in these ancient 

 sacrificial tracts. 



The siitras begin with general rules for measuring ; the greater part 

 of these rules, in which the chief interest of this class of writings is con- 

 centrated, will be given further on. In the next place they teach how to 

 fix the right places for the sacred fires, and how to measure out the vedis 

 of the different sacrifices, the saumiki vedi, the paitriki vedi ,and so on. 



The remainder of the siitras contains the detailed description of the 

 construction of the "agni", the large altar built of bricks, which was re- 

 quired at the great soma sacrifices. 



This altar could be constructed in different shapes, the earliest enu- 

 meration of which we find in the Taittiriya Samhita, V. 4. 11. 



Following this enumeration Baudhayana and A'pastamba furnish us 

 with full particulars about the shape of all these different chitis and the 

 bricks which had to be employed for their construction. The most ancient 

 and primitive form is the chaturasras'yenachit, so called because it rude- 

 ly imitates the form of a falcon, and because the bricks out of which it is 

 composed are all of a square shape. It had to be employed whenever 

 there was no special reason for preferring another shape of the agni ; and 

 all rules given by brahmanas and siitras for the agnichayana refer to it in 

 first line. A full description of the construction of this agni according to 

 the ritual of the white Yajur Vecla and of all accompanying ceremonies has 

 been given by Professor A. Weber in the 13th volume of the " Indische 

 Studien." A nearer approach to the real shape of a falcon or — as the 



